Adirondack Hike: Blue Mountain
I do a lot of hiking in the Adirondacks. I hope my trip reports will help future hikers on the same routes!
Blue Mountain from the road to the south
Blue Mountain
Blue Mountain is a 3,750 foot mountain in the southern part of the Adirondack Park of New York. It is just two miles to the summit and four miles round trip, with 1,550 feet of elevation gain across those two miles.
The hike is part of the Adirondack Firetower Challenge and the Adirondack 29'er Challenge.
Blue Mountain's trailhead is located in the town of Blue Mountain Lake on the east side of New York State Route 28N. It is just past the Adirondack Experience, a museum in town if you are heading north on route 28N.
The Trailhead
The parking lot at Blue Mountain looks like it could hold at least twenty cars but there were only six when I got there around 1:45 pm on a Tuesday. The sign-in book for the trail is at the south end of the lot. I did not see a privy or port-a-potty, although there is a privy just before reaching the summit.
For this hike, being so short I simply carried two small water bottles, three granola bars, a small bag of toilet paper, and the High Peaks Adirondack Trail Map because getting off trail and lost can be a really bad thing in the middle of the woods (as I know from previous experiences).
The sign for the Blue Mountain Trailhead
The sign-in book
Up We Go!
The lower part of this hike reminded me of so many others in that you are in a stony creek bed. The lower part isn't that steep, but at the ten-minute mark, right after crossing a little stream, the trail starts heading up with some steep incline. I took a bunch of videos on the hike and put them into a recap at the end of the article.
Up the creek bed
The good news on this hike is that after a bit of climbing, they give you a few hundred feet of flatter terrain, whether it be walking across some boards on flatter ground or just some less steep rocky trail.
I eventually came to a large boulder to my left about thirty minutes into the hike. It served as a great trail marker to remind yourself how far you have left on the way out.
This big rock was the 30-minute mark for me
The next thirty minutes is when the steeper climbing kicked in. It was stony, but not super technical in terms of needing to grab onto objects to try and pull yourself up. There was another nice resting spot with a rock sticking out of the left side of the trail and I took a minute there as well.
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A nice resting point
The stony terrain
Some flat stone work
After some of the flat stone work you can see in the photo above, there's a section of the trail where the tree canopy goes away and the sun hits the trail. It's still pretty flat here, and up on the left, there is a pair of stones that make yet another great resting point.
Once I sat down, I noticed this was the first viewpoint to look back down and see Blue Mountain Lake and the surrounding area.
From this point, there is one more little climb and then you are done with the big stuff!
The Summit
Once the trail gets a little flatter, it's about five minutes up to the summit. Just before it opens up to the firetower, there is a privy off the trail to the left. The summit is pretty open and the firetower is off to the right.
Blue Mountain Firetower
I arrived at the summit at 3:15 pm for an ascent time of an hour and fifteen minutes. There was a father and his two children in the tower when I arrived and I chatted with them when they came down. About ten minutes later, a lone hiker arrived at the summit after I did.
After going as high as my vertigo would allow me to climb on the tower and grabbing some more video footage, it was about 3:30 pm and I started back down.
I ran into two more pairs of hikers on the way down, turning back to walk with an older gentlemen on one of the angled wet sections on the last steep part until I was sure he was safe.
I got back to the trailhead around 4:45 pm. I figure the descent would have taken me about an hour if I didn't double back or stop to grab some extra video.
Another great hike, but one I would recommend for people after they have done a few of the easier peaks in the area like Owl's Head or Bald Mountain.
© 2022 JOC
